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Should we boycott LinuxToday.org?

From Distrowatch:

We urge our visitors to boycott LINUXTODAY.COM. LINUXTODAY.COM is currently sponsored by Microsoft Corporation and displays anti-Linux messages on its web site. We consider this practice immoral and hypocritical for a web site that acts as a Linux advocacy resource.
PLEASE DO NOT VISIT LINUXTODAY.COM.

Makes you wonder...
Is it acceptable for a Linux news site to take money from Microsoft?
Can one still consider it reliable?
Are all benchmarks for sale?

Please post your opinions.

PS: I've posted this before, but it got deleted. I might have posted it in the wrong place but it would have been more polite to move it and explain what was wrong with it.

It was removed because it contained a link to another linux forum. Despite this being a free service to the community, we *are* in competition with other forums for the userbase that generates the ad revenue that keeps this site open and free to the community. Yes, the mods are volunteers, but J has to pay for all of this somehow.

Their code will be beautiful, even if their desks are buried in 3 feet of crap. - esr

What? money paid to keep something free? I wonder how all of those distros are free? Mabe Winblows is helping them to stay afloat. Maybe Linuxtoday was getting ready to go bust? Maybe distrowatch is jealous for not getting some of Winblows money. And thank you lordnothing for pointing out for it to be FREE, somebody is paying for it.

I think blowsoft (MS) should leave everybody alone and let us make our choice on our own. They are just afraid of being kicked out of the market as a result of such a great alternative, Linux of course, and by the fact that it just isn't what free people want. I think that's the most important issue, most of us like freedom, and we seek to do things that make us feel like we are free. And thus, that's why we also like a sw option that allows us to expand that freedom. Stupid blowsoft keeps thinking paying for such crap is worth it, and this is a personal opinion. This 2 months using linux make me feel bad because i now realize i should have turned to it so long ago, wasted time thinking, blinded from the truth. And it pisses me off to know that some company is trying to take linux away from me. And i am doing my part, i've told all my friends and coworkers that linux is a great choice, that MS is not the only one out there. I am doing some side-advertisement.

I do not believe just because they take advertising dollars from MS that it means they are compromised. Every Linux mag I have ever read has at some point had MS advertising in it. This list includes but is not limited to Linux Developer & User (UK based), Linux Format (UK based), Linux Journal (CA based), Linux World (USA based). Does the fact that they took MS advertising dollars make there content suspect I think not I believe the content needs to be judged on it own merits. Otherwise you start passing out guilt by association which is never a good idea.

Long live the revolution!
Have a nice day.
If you want real change vote Libertarian!

Firstly, you have to rememer that LinuxToday.com is NOT a "Linux advocacy resource", it is a web property of JupiterMedia Corporation. The site exists only for the purpose of making a profit.

Is it acceptable for a Linux news site to take money from Microsoft?

Microsoft are a business like any other. My question would be what is wrong with Microsoft advertising where they want to?

Can one still consider it reliable?

By this you are refering to the editorial content of LinuxToday? If you hadnt noticed, LinuxToday just re-prints content written by other Linux websites...

money paid to keep something free? I wonder how all of those distros are free?

Redhat, Mandrake and Suse all have commercial elements. People who run those companies invest their time, money and effort, take a big financial risk in some cases, and want to make money back from the venture. Other non-commercial distro's are free because of donations of both time and money. For example Debian gets donations from commercial entities, take a look at : http://www.debian.org/partners/

know of another Linux Forum(will not mention the name) where the home page is FULL of microsoft banners and advertisements!!??

If we're thinking of the same forum, then you will find that it is also owned by the same company that own's LinuxToday, - JupiterMedia.

Sorry for my post sounding a little pro-microsoft here, but at the end of the day, western society is driven by capitialistic movitation. A lot of us here go to work to earn money so we can eat, buy a house to live in, etc etc. Does that make you as evil as some people view Microsoft to be? Why not? You still get up in the morning, knowing that your going to go to work to make money (execpt if you unemployed of course).

<rant>
I don't really know how I feel about it one way or another. It's an excellent resource, however I'm personally opposed to it on principle. Should I boycott the site on my beliefs and principles, or should I let someone else gain the advantage b/c I won't compromise my integrity?On a much broader subject, this is what M$ wants... Keep the wolves protecting their watering hole fighting amongst each other. Then they won't think to join hands and fight the corporations. Should I save $2 at Wal-mart so that grandma can make $5 and hour, or should I go to the local Union shop so that their workers can make an honest wage?

This is inherently why Unions fail, and we find ourselves at the mercy of money grubbing, corporate fat cats, just like we were in 1920's. Until we band together and stop our own greed and self-interests, we won't be able to do **** about corporate greed and government coruption.

In the end, I'm quite sure that were I to boycott the site, it wouldn't matter anyway, much like my boycott of Wal-mart, Starbucks, and George Bush.

To put my opinion in a couple sentences: If M$ wants to advertise on a Linux-oriented site, so be it. That just goes to show that they realize the threat that is Linux. It also means that their advertising dollars are going to support Linux sites. So effectively, they are funding the revolution that will eventually be their downfall.

"Time is an illusion. Lunchtime, doubly so."
~Douglas Adams, The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy